Health officials say more than half of Illinois’ swine flu cases have been in children.
The state’s rate of new case reports has slowed. But officials said Friday it’s likely new cases will continue to be reported through the summer.
Illinois Department of Public Health spokeswoman Kelly Jakubek said the new flu strain is acting differently than seasonal flu. It’s affecting mostly younger people and continuing later in the year.
Seasonal flu is less likely to be reported during the summer because people aren’t congregating indoors and children are out of school.
Illinois was reporting 2,875 confirmed cases as of today, 2,203 of them in Chicago and Cook County. Locally, Winnebago County had reported 42 cases, Boone County 9, Ogle County 3 and Stephenson County 1.
Nearly 62 percent of the confirmed cases statewide were in children and teenagers.
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